


Looking Glass

by myidiotclintbarton



Category: Yu-Gi-Oh! ARC-V
Genre: Canon Compliant, Gen, I love writing this messed up thinking of broken people like zarc and ray, One Shot, Pre series, honestly im really nervous posting anything about yugioh but here we go
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-07-22
Updated: 2018-07-22
Packaged: 2019-06-14 06:43:31
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,126
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15382950
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/myidiotclintbarton/pseuds/myidiotclintbarton
Summary: Something… Someone in the mirror called to them. Yuya had seen a bitter man through the reflection. Yuzu had seen a sorrowful woman. But they both had forgotten those meetings long ago. Those people had spoken something important to them….............Both Ray and Zarc had messages for their fragments.





	Looking Glass

**The Man in the Mirror**

Yuya was sat on the carpeted floor of his bedroom. He sat his small five year old body on his legs, toes curling in his grey socks. He was admiring the card he had just received.

Odd Eyes Dragon.

He thinks it's absolutely wonderful and promises to himself he will treat it with all the respect it deserves. Running his tiny fingers along its cleanly cut edges, he cannot help but think he’s greeting an old friend. The reptilian form shimmers like a trick of the light, though in his small, darkened room he doesn’t know how.

He couldn't help but feel as though this wasn't normal. That he was having a glimpse at something he shouldn’t be. Like the very shadows taking form but the face of the being is familiar, though he couldn’t place why. 

Apprehension was welling in his chest but something else was compelling him to look. To go closer. The stench in the air of disdain for others and of self importance was not detected by the boy.

Yuya gets up to investigate closer, his crimson mismatched eyed dragon still in hand. The man moved in tandem with him to the pure wall dividing them, albeit much more poised and confident. Yuya inches a bit closer before stopping, not wanting to move under the intensity of those glowing eyes. Such power. Such presence he demanded. The stranger is standing tall like a king rightfully should, with all the purpose and strength to show for it.

The man steps forward again, leering over him, analysing Yuya. All Yuya does is stare back with curious and wide ruby eyes. He bends forward a bit, still keeping some height on the child while retaining eye contact. His hands part from where they had been clasped together behind his back so he can place a brown gloved forearm across the prison between them. He leans closer, looking below where he rests his arm.

_“I think you're destined for great things, you and I.”_ The man smiles but it's odd and crooked, nothing like the ones his father brings to people. When that thought crosses his mind, the veneer drops and the man’s expression matches his cold golden orbs once more.

 _“In due time, you won't need them, Pendulum. You will only have to depend on yourself, that I promise you.”_ The words turn sad at the end. The man bowed his head, lost in thought. His striking liquid gold eyes were hidden behind his light gray and pale green bangs. _“Nothing good ever comes from trusting others,”_ the stranger whispers to only himself as he balls his hand into a fist. It's a curious statement. One that so full of melancholy that Yuya can't resist but try and quell by attempting to comfort the man; he doesn't like when people are sad. 

Yuya pedals his legs forward, wanting to comfort the man. He doesn't want this stranger to be sad, no matter how much he had scared Yuya at first. Yuya lays a single hand on the mirror’s surface, the closest he can get to the stranger. Yuya still doesn't say anything, still in slight awe of the man’s aura, but he still speaks volumes with that small action. That attempt at comfort.

The man's gaze was still turned downwards but he could see Yuya’s short form come into view. He speaks again. 

_“They are not worth it. You are better than them. I promise you that.”_ His head turns up to gaze upon Yuya again. 

The look the man gave him was so surprised and hopeful that Yuya thinks the man wants to even hug him but only just remembers the barrier between them. Yuya thought that this man is oddly emotional for what he expected but he naively thinks nothing of it. This stranger looked to still be invigorated by Yuya’s gesture and spoke once more, now bending down to Yuya’s level,

 _“I’ll never let you go, never let them take you away again. This time we’ll all stay as one and no one can stop us.”_ It's some sort of promise. The man’s hand was clenched and his smile that spread across his cheeks was far less welcoming than any smile should be. It’s an odd things as the man’s eyes are leaking fast tears. Yuya thinks this man emotional in the strangest of ways. _“You’ll be very important one day. I’m counting on it, Pendulum.”_

Those last words reverberate through Yuya’s being, resonating with him. Again, he had called him by that name. What did that mean? Why was he so angry? Why was he so sad?

Yuya is left properly confused by all these statements. The apparition fades from existence without any proper goodbye, (perhaps he didn’t need one), leaving behind Yuya’s confused form. The child then backed away from the looking glass, only able to see his plain old reflection.

The slip of a card is felt against his tiny foot and he looks down to see his precious Duel Monsters cards, quickly forgetting the exchange with the man behind the mirror. He skips off to gain a snack from his mother, feeling light on his feet again but something still weighs him down. He ignores it. It never goes away.

His recall of the happening fades more and more with time but the smile the stranger wielded becomes deeply imbedded in his mind, though he cannot remember when or who it belongs to. The more time passes, only that it unsettles him. That it is so very familiar for a reason he could not place. 

Three other boys with Yuya's face have been met by the same apparition on the same day but in three different dimensions. Each one can only remember that one detail from their time of those encounters. It was left as more of an unsettling feeling in the bottom of their chests, a reminder that something wasn’t right with them. The thoughts rooting into him (them) like a hidden weed. Some of the boys ignore it better than their counterparts. One wholly embraces it having nothing else to really care about. 

Some days, Yuya will look into the mirror, lost to his own reflection, knowing something is off but never admitting to it. His eyes wander, thinking they see something else in his place but it's never defined enough to be real. He always thinks it is just a trick of the light and moves on. He thinks ignoring it was for the best but the mirror is forever watching, wanting to be complete and whole once more. _One day soon,_ he would whisper to himself, to no one.

The shadow lives those four childhoods simultaneously through each of its fractured shards, resenting everything that harms them more than the vessels themselves will. Hating all that try to get close, glowering at them, knowing they will always waver and fall in the end. Humans are unreliable. It remembers its hate for humanity, the disdain he has for people. All the stranger can do is wait in silence and pitiful darkness for a chance to be in the light once more.

**The Woman in the Mirror**

Yuzu is five when she is fussing with and admiring her royal blue flower clips to either side of her head when she sees someone else in place of her reflection. She feels a cold spell and sees an odd shine of light she thinks emits from the flower charm band hanging on a simple string from her neck. The band itself is still to large to be worn on her wrist. 

When she looked up from that strange pale pink glow, a beautiful lady, tall and confident, stood in her place in the mirror, greeting Yuzu with a soft and earnest smile. It was proud and gentle and she waves at the pink haired child before her. She has lovely features that tell of kindness and wisdom. Yuzu isn't afraid of the figure, she knows this stranger means her no harm somehow. The woman kneels down to be level with Yuzu, fingers twitched when they hit the barrier between them as if she had absently wanted to pat her head or brush her pink locks. She looks as though she will tell her some important message from the past. Whose past, Yuzu wasn't sure. 

The woman compromised by placing a hand of long elegant fingers to the surface between their realities, palm making contact with it. The child wandered closer to the stranger in the glass, putting her own pudgy arm to that fully grown one that dwarfs it. The woman’s reserved and sad look breaks into a slight smile.

 _“My, you are certainly a sight to behold,”_ she speaks softly, almost to herself. Her giggle is small but earnest as she observes the curious girl before her. 

Yuzu felt spellbound by the entity in that moment, marveling at the beautiful matured face that was oddly familiar, there is something about it calling to her but she cannot place as to why. Yuzu felt like she was seeing something she shouldn’t, a beyond in a world she should have never seen. But still, Yuzu isn’t worried. It is as though she is calmed by the lady’s presence alone. The woman speaks to her, voice like an angel’s, as if she were ever knowing and distantly sorrowful.

 _“Take care of him in my place. I know you'll do well, En Flowers. Be strong and ever hopeful.”_ Those timeless lilacs gazing into Yuzu are full of an emotion to complex for her small self to yet understand. She recognizes part of it. Something like regret and pain. _“You’ve got a lot to live for and much to do in the meantime. You'll need those parts of you as well as many others; after all, a symphony requires many pieces to perform a song. You are not ready yet but you will be. I hope so.”_

Before Yuzu can ask who and what she is referring to, the woman with flowing waves of burgundy and powder rosette locks fades to only become Yuzu's small reflected form once again. The girl turns to search the room for the missing figure finding nothing but her own pastel pink colored room. 

Yuzu had blinked over her azures and closed her agape mouth, trying to remember what just happened. After a moment, all she can do is draw a blank. She can't think of what she had forgotten or why her hand was smudging the dust laden but otherwise flawless mirror. She figures that it couldn't have been too important if she had forgotten it so easily, shaking her head. Yuzu admires her handiwork for one moment longer before dashing off out of her room at the sound of her father's joyous and alert voice.

What Yuzu doesn't know is that three other girls so like herself also see this strange woman in the reflection. They don't know much, so young they are. Not yet will they understand. But she all will one day. Yuzu forgets about the woman with a face so much like her own, only older and more defined, but she never forgets those words as they find a home in the back of her subconscious. 

Yuzu dreams of the odd woman from time to time but her mind can never recall the fantasy once she wakes and she is rather resigned to it. It doesn’t feel like anything she should poke at, as though the thought is better off forgotten.

She who has walked forward and her smile is so kind and warm like she cherishes this girl who doesn't know her. She only speaks truths to Yuzu and her counterparts, her visage only witnessed by those who her words were meant for. The woman is with her every day of her life, a part of her. Her melodic voice can only be heard in fractured parts like it is being muted as it is carried away in the wind. The woman in the mirror is only able to watch and not intervene. But she is patient. She who is pale and tired yet still strong willed will wait for when… (she hopes it will only be) if she is needed again. 

Yuzu continues to start her days like she always does but part of her is anxious, almost concerned. That ongoing concern only quells once she sees Yuya, like she can breathe easier knowing he is okay, that he is just within arms reach. She always takes his hand in hers, the pink charm swinging on her person, and they move forward to together, her smile bright once more. His always is sparked in turn.

**Author's Note:**

> This was hidden in a folder of mine for a few months now and was mostly finished so I thought I’d post it. It's just a little poetic thing I wrote while I was listening to my Arc V playlist. You guys thought I was only into Avengers well you thought wrong. Please don’t judge, I love Arc V and it’s got a cool concept to write about. To be fair, I keep all my other fandoms on the down low. I’ll be back to writing my Marvel stuff soon tho, just give me a little bit of time.
> 
> If you do want more Arc V stuff, I do have more writings I've kept to myself that I could post just let me know. Nothing shippy, all are character studies 'cause that's all I care about.


End file.
